Her looks, while not unattractive, have been called decidedly nondescript, and even those who stand most in awe of her agree Hasili's persona is more workmanlike than flashy diva.
"She's a very ordinary looking mare, very ordinary personality," Garrett O'Rourke, manager of Juddmonte Farms, said of the operation's illustrious broodmare. "She just likes being on her own and has no celebrity status to her at all."
Even as O'Rourke spoke, he couldn't help but let out a slight chuckle.
Because standard as Hasili's physical features may be, O'Rourke knows all too well the bay mare is guaranteed to be remembered as one of the most extraordinary individuals the Thoroughbred industry has seen.
While Khalid Abdullah's Juddmonte empire has been home to such game-changing Broodmares of the Year as four-time Grade I producer Toussaud and Slightly Dangerous, it is the farm's brilliant Hasili who has carved out the career in the breeding shed that might go down as the greatest ever.
In addition to being the first Northern Hemisphere broodmare to produce five Grade/Group I winners, Hasili has the distinction of having her first six foals all become graded stakes victors.
It is usually a given that even the most exceptional of talents have their greatness tail off at a certain point. In the case of Hasili, however, the 19-year-old daughter of Kahyasi is defying conventional wisdom by continuing to add to a résumé that needs no embellishment.
Eight days ago, Hasili's lightly raced 3-year-old daughter Deluxe by former leading sire Storm Cat nearly became the sixth Group I winner for her remarkable dam when she finished second, beaten just half a length by the Aga Khan's Sarafina in the Prix Saint-Alarny at Longchamp in Paris.
While there is ample hope Deluxe — who was making just her third career start — will eventually add to her dam's remarkable legacy, trying to digest what Hasili has already accomplished takes some effort in itself.
"Obviously it would be quite a goal as an owner and breeder to have potentially the best broodmare of all time, but it's not something you can set out to achieve and expect to achieve," O'Rourke said. "It always amazes me that, as difficult as it is to get horses sound and healthy to the races, that every one of (Hasili's) not only are they good, but they're so sound and healthy and they just start competing and go right to Grade I level. It's amazing."
Though Hasili was a stakes winner on the track and had a solid pedigree in her corner, nothing in her form could have indicated the impact she would have on the sport once she entered the breeding shed.
Her first mating with the now-deceased leading sire Danehill produced the strapping Dansili, a Group II winner who is himself now one of the top stallions in Europe.
While Hasili did not get in foal her second season, her return date with Danehill resulted in the champion mare Banks Hill, winner of the 2001 Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf and earner of more than $1.8 million.
"We had breeding rights to Danehill having raised him, and you know that was the reason she went to him," O'Rourke recalled. "Danehill hadn't reached the superstar status in his career, either, but he was a big, strong, fast horse, and this was a mare that had a lot of stamina.
"Obviously the first foal comes out really good looking so you try it again, and then the first foal is a top-notch racehorse, the second foal is Banks Hill and you keep going and going."
The Hasili-Danehill mating will itself go down in racing annals as their subsequent breedings yielded champion Intercontinental, multiple Grade I winner Cacique, and 2009 Canadian Horse of the Year Champs Elysees.
Proving she is not just the product of one stallion's success, though, Hasili's third foal — the multiple Grade I-winning millionaire Heat Haze — was the product of her being sent to the top English sire Green Desert.
"I would say the majority of (her foals) are more like the sire, but for all the times she was bred to Danehill, there are no two that look exactly alike," O'Rourke said. "But every single one of them has an engine."
In addition to Deluxe, Hasili also has a 2-year-old filly by Empire Maker and was bred back to Oasis Dream this season after birthing a dead foal this year. The only offspring of hers that was not a winner on the racetrack was the Sadler's Wells colt Raise The Flag, who suffered a career-ending injury in his only start.
While Hasili was named England's Broodmare of the Year in 2006, she has yet to be bestowed the same annual honor from the Kentucky Thoroughbred Association and Kentucky Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders' Inc., despite all her top performers earning Grade I success in North America.
Should the Kentucky-bred Deluxe manage to secure a Grade/Group I victory this season, O'Rourke says it would be hard to deny the mare with the unparalleled career that final milestone.
"Some mares come along and have two Grade I winners in one year, and that can qualify that mare to win the award ahead of a mare who has one this year, one last year, one the year before, one the year before that," O'Rourke said. "If Deluxe wins a Grade I, with a bit of luck, she'll nominate her this year. She's beyond being the most amazing mare I've been lucky enough to be around. She's just never let up from her first foal until the last foal."
